💪 A STRONG COMEBACK | Essex Men v Yorkshire Men - Day 1 Highlights

James Wharton stood resolute at one end while wickets fell all around him as Yorkshire pressed the self-destruct button after a promising start on a difficult Chelmsford wicket. The 24-year-old right-hander came in when the first wicket fell at 71 and was still there 55 overs later on 63 not out from 145 balls when Matt Critchley wrapped up Yorkshire’s innings on 216 with his fourth wicket. The heart had been ripped out of Yorkshire’s innings when four wickets fell in six overs, three of them in nine balls, as a promising 108-1 became 128-5 and continued in the same vein at the same time as Wharton painstakingly racked up his second Rothesay County Championship half-century of the season. Only opener Adam Lyth, with 58 from 148 balls, showed any similar resolve. Watched by a bumper first-day crowd of 2,612, bolstered by a number of school parties, Essex lost both openers and the nightwatchman in the 16 overs remaining in the evening session while reducing the arrears by 27 runs. Charlie Allsion nicked Ben Coad behind, Dean Elgar fished at one from George Hill to be caught at second slip and Jamie Porter was beaten for pace by the same bowler.